Organ Donation Awareness Week

At the hospital, there was a table that was set up to provide passers by with more information on organ donation as well as how they could register to be an organ donor. As someone who just had a kidney transplant, I had the pleasure of volunteering at the table! It was great talking to others, answering questions, and sharing my story. We also had some pins and cookies for sale too! It was pretty fun.

Yum..organ donation ribbon sugar cookies…

The wonderful lady kept me company after my transplant! She works in housekeeping I think.

Register “Yes” 🙂

beadonor.ca

Myself and my transplant coordinator (pre-transplant) Julie 🙂

Liver Transplant recipient John and Julie-I took this by accident when grabbing my camera ha!

Group Pic

Group Pic take two!

Green ribbon temporary tattoo 🙂

At the end of the week, I had the pleasure of speaking to a number (maybe 80-100?) medical laboratory professionals as it was also medical laboratory professionals’ appreciation week! I got to speak about how their work benefits us as patients, even though they work “behind the scenes” and don’t often get the same recognition as, say, doctors or nurses. It was great. Everyone was really receptive to what I had to say. I loved it when I was speaking and I’d look out at the people in the audience and I’d see people nodding their heads in agreement or laughing at my jokes 😛

Overall, it was a great and eventful week!

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3 comments on “Organ Donation Awareness Week”

First off I'd like to say those cookies look soooooooo good! It seems like that was a fun event to do. I'm not a big speaker, but you seem like you are great and that it comes naturally to you. Great that it went well. Also, you look good in your pics…just thought I'd point that out. *sidenote* I had two thoughts when I first looked at this post(first was wow…those are some good looking cookies). My second one was “OMG, get all these germ people away from my friend!!!” I wanted to come through the computer and shoo the people away. lol. So that made me think, how soon after transplant can you be around random people? I heard you have to wear a mask or they need to be wearing mask, etc…

LOL! Yes I'm good at writing speeches and I'm pretty good at speaking too, but I could use a bit more work on the speaking part in terms of working on my nerves! They say my nerves don't show..but I feel it!

Thanks from saving me from the germs!! I don't think I was given any direct timeline in terms of staying away from others, though I did in fact stay away from others for a number of weeks (self imposed isolation LOL)

Although, when I went to clinic to get my staples removed, there was another guy there who was on the same floor as me when I had my transplant, so he must have had his surgery around the same time as me. He had a mask on. When my transplant coordinator saw him, she asked him if he was sick, and he said no, just protecting himself from others who may be sick. She advised him that this was not the correct thing to do. He was not at all giving his body the opportunity to introduce potential…germs into his system. His body would eventually need to get used to germs in general, and wearing a mask not only prevented his body from doing that, but by wearing a mask, he was breathing and re-breathing (recycling) his air, which wasn't a good thing either.

So I don't know what the correct answer is, but I pretty much stayed home for a month straight after the transplant (aside from appointments), then went on small outings (grocery store, etc). Better safe than sorry…but not TOO safe! 🙂

They say the more you do it the less nervous you get. I don't know how true that is. I haven't had to speak in front of groups of people many times, but I know I still get nervous. As you can probably tell by my responses and tweets that writing is also not my thing. I don't proof read and my grammar and spelling…horrible to say the least.

That's interesting what the transplant coordinator had to say to the guy. I didn't take the time to think about it that way. I'm one of those better safe than sorry people. I REALLY don't like procedures and things of that nature. I will be extra careful of something if someone tells me I'm at risk having some type of procedure done, having pain, or damaging something. When I got my ICD for my heart they told me I couldn't lift my left arm but only so high. If I did it could pull at the leads that were placed in my heart to shock my heart. I was so afraid I never moved my arm much at all. I think it was beginning to get stiff like. When I went to get the device checked out they started to say that I have to move it at least a little bit. I was still afraid though. I was just thinking to myself “Gosh! It's either move it or don't! There is no in between with me.” lol

I'm so excited that you are doing well! Now that you have got rid of that machine that means you are closer to leaving ol Canada behind and coming to the states to visit! 🙂 *I hope*